1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement for hanging a curtain to a supporting rod, and more particularly to a hanger ring assembly adapted for mounting a curtain onto a supporting rod.
2. Description of Related Arts
Curtains and the like such as drapes and portieres are common used for sheltering windows, shower areas, separating spaces, and etc. Most of the curtains are hanged by supporting rods or rod-like elements, each of which is solid or hollow elongated object having a uniform cross section. Curtains can be made of flexible sheet materials such as plastic or resin. Woven fabric or the like, or non-woven fabric or the like, or water resistant paper, or sheet metal, or woven metal strands or rods are other commonly known materials for making curtains.
The conventional methods of mounting a curtain onto a supporting rod include hook or clip method and ring method. If the two ends of the supporting rod are permanently affixed to two opposite walls, a plurality of J-shaped or S-shaped hook members are spacedly connected along a top edge of the curtain for hooking onto the supporting rod, or alternatively, a plurality of clip members are penetrated into the curtain for attaching directly to the supporting rod or to rings attached to the supporting rod.
If the supporting rod is supported between the two opposite walls in a detachable manner, a plurality of hanger rings are spacedly affixed along the top edge of the curtain, wherein the user must penetrate the supporting rod through the hanger rings before mounting the supporting rod between the two walls, so that the curtain is hanged up by the supporting rod. Also, in order to replace the curtain, the user must take down the supporting rod that causes a lot of trouble and time.
In order to rapidly mount a curtain onto a rod, U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,232 suggests communication between the openings in each pair of openings which are spacedly provided along a top edge of the curtain. The communication, in fact, contains an open path, such as a cut, between the two openings in a pair which enables the engagement of the curtain onto the rod directly without the need of the additional hook or clip members nor the need of taking down the rod. In other words, when mounting the curtain on the rod, the portion of the curtain between the pairs of openings in each pair are pushed to the other side of the rod by passing the rod through the cuts.
However, the plurality of cuts formed on the curtain largely weakens the material strength of the curtain and reduce the service life span of the curtain. Due to the weight of the curtain itself when it is hanged down, the curtain will be torn at the junctions of the cuts and openings. Moreover, when the user pulls the curtain mounted on the rod while spreading or gathering the curtain, a relatively large pulling force will be applied to the curtain that may easily pull pair of openings detaching from the rod through the respective cut extended between pair of openings. Also, the plurality of cuts provided between pairs of openings also render the spreading or gathering operation of the curtain along the rod becoming difficult because the pulling force applied to the curtain will not be evenly distributed around the rings. The junctions of the cuts and the openings will also cause resistance when moving the curtain along the rod. Besides, the appearance and the design of the curtain will be adversely affected by the existence of cuts thereon.